new south wales



C. CUTLER AND D. F. MORAND.

LOOSE LEAF BINDER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 25. 1917.

Patented July 13, 1920.

inmnlom D. F morand.

UNITED STATESY'PATENT OFFICE,

CECIL CUTLER AND DANIEL FRANCIS MORAND, OF SYDNEY, NEW $OUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA; SAID CUTLER ASSIGNOB OF HIS RIGHT TO ERNEST VEREY, OF SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.

LOOSE-LEAF BINDER.

Application filed October 25, 1917.

To all rv/2.0m 2'25 may concern Be it known that we, CECIL CUTLER and DANIEL FnANors MonANn, subjects of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, residing, respectively, at 1823 Pitt street, Sydney, New South lVales, Australia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Loose-Leaf Binders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to binders for carrying loose leaves of a ledger or other book, and it has for its object to providefor the carrying of the loose leaves in such a way that while the binder is open they may be removed and replaced with great facility in .normal or offset order; further to provide for the locking of the leaves in the binder when same is closed without disturbing their normal and offset relation; further to provide for the expansion of the binder to adapt it for carrying a small or a large number of leaves as required; and further to provide for the resting of the leaves in a binder while lying open in such a manner that said leaves will rest apart at an opening, so insuring accessibility, and retain the relative positions in which they are placed in the binder by the user withoutrisk of falling together, whereby manipulation of the leaves is facilitated when same are being handled for the insertion, checking or correction of entries thereon, and whereby also maintenance of the proper opening for reinstatement of leaves so removed is assured. The invention has for additional objects the mounting of the binder posts in the binder covers in such a way as to obviate risk of ac cidentally demounting the post and dislocating the leaves when the posts are being set to close the binder or to permit it to be spread open for book-keeping purposes.

As is usual, the binder is constituted of a back cover and a front cover which are respectively fitted with flexibly attached stub or butt portions, and posts therein carry the contained leaves and secure the covers together. In a binder made according to this invention each leaf is eye-holed and notched symmetrically on one stub edge and may be set in the binder either in normal or in offset position as required. Four or more posts are used; of these two at least are look p'osts,, and two at least are riding posts. The former serve for locking or curved.

Specification of Letters Patent. 7 Patented July 13 192() Serial No. 198,383.

up the leaves in'the binder, and the latter for carrying the leaves when the binder is open. All the posts are sectional, that is to say made up of a plurality of short lengths with socket and spigot screwed ends for securing any two or more of the sections together to form the necessary length and for mounting the posts in the back stub. One section of each of the riding posts is bent The stub bar on the back cover is a solid or tubular metal bar fitted with tapped sockets into which the screwed lower end of the posts are insertible. The sockets are not essential, as the posts may be screwed into tapped holes in the bar; The locking stub bar on the front cover is a hollow or tubular bar having holes drilled through it in register with the sockets in the back cover bar. In this tubular bar a locking slide controllable by a screw key of known type is fitted for the purpose of sliding the bar to pinch the posts in the locking stub bar to secure the frontcover stub on the binder posts and fix the leaves in the binder. The sockets for the lock posts are short and are threaded with a left hand thread, the male ends of the short lower sections of the lock posts being left-threaded to correspond with the socket thread. The sockets for the riding posts, which arelocated preferably on either outer side of the lock post sockets, are long sockets with a right hand thread, the lower ends of the riding posts having corresponding male right hand threads formed on them. The object of reversely threading the lock post sockets and rigl'it hand threading the riding postsockets respectively is, firstly to insure the placing of the proper posts in the respective sockets, and secondly to obviate accidental unscrewing of the lock posts at an intermediate joint when they are being unscrewed out of the back cover stub bar. lVhen the binder is in use the bent riding posts permit the book to be set with the covers spread apart an gularly with the leaves oneither side of the opening leaning against one cover or the other as the case may be, with a clear opening space between the left hand and right hand blocks of said leaves, so that a bookkeeper using the binder may separate the two blocks of leaves at the proper opening and may then remove eitheror both of the two leaves facing the opening for the insertion of entries thereon, and return such leaf or leaves to the binder in the proper position therein. Each leaf is formed with four equidistant notches in the stub edge of it registering with the post centerings, and consequently the leaves on which the entries have been made may be offset from normal position (the lockposts or the upper sec= tions thereof being first removed to free the leaves) by straddling the alternate pair'of 3 notches on the bent riding posts, thereby facilitating ready identification of and reference to theleaves which have been removed and replaced in ofiset positionand enabling ready-checking of entries made thereon before finally replacing them in normal order. If the leaves were set in the binder with posts passing only through the notches there would be a risk, particularly when the binder is not closed very tightly, of a leaf or leaves becoming displaced and some or all of them falling outof the covers.

Onr loose leaf binders are provided with four posts; of these two. are lock posts and two are riding posts. Provided the leaves are appropriately holed'andnotched three register with the lock posts when the leaf is i in oifsetpositicn in the binder, and therefore when the lock posts are threaded in and screwed home all the leavesin whatever positien they maybe are securely locked in-the covers. 1 i

' In the accompanying drawings, Figure '1 is a perspective view of our binder in the closed locked position, with all the leaves set normally; Fig. 2 is a similar View showing thekey inserted to manipulatethe pinching bar, the riding post extensions screwed on, and twoleaves oifset; Fig. 3 is a'plan view ofa'blank leaf showing in full'lines in normal position on the posts and in dotted lines the offset position thereon; Fig. 4c is a perspective view the binder supported on a stand with the covers spread apart and the leaves separated into two blocks, one of which rests against either cover respectively, two leaves being shown oifset in the right hand block; Fig. 5 isIan elevational view of one of the lock posts; Fig; 6 is an elevational view 'ofone of the ridingpostsf; Figf7 is a perspective view ofthe back cover stub bar;

ble union. piece C. D is the front cover, E

its stub, and F its flexible portion uniting the stub tothe fiat portion. G is the back stub bar which is mounted in or on the stub B. In the case of a four-post binder, it is fitted with two short sockets HH tapped left-hand, and also, disposed symmetricallyon either side of the sockets HH two longer sockets JJ, which are tapped right-hand. K is the hollow front stub bar, L a slide post pinching bar within it, and M a screw which may be turnedby a key N or like instrument to set the position of the bar L in the hollow stub bar K. The barsK and L are pierced. with holes 70 and Z registeringwith the post sockets 'HH' and ;J J O are thelock posts, and P are the riding posts. Q

are the lowermost detachable sections of the lock posts terminating at the foot in a left hand threadnipple R, and at the head in a right handtapped socket; all the spigot.

and socket joints marked S are right handconnections; T are'tommy'holes, U are blank bookleaves. V eye-holesin the stub margins thereof, and W notches symmetri- 95 In a four post binderthere are ordinarily cal and alternating with the eye-holes V.

but not necessarily three eye-holes V and four noteheslV. 'X are knobs on the outer ends of the riding posts. Yis a book stand which may be adjustable for angular set or position apart, of the pillows 17 Z are the bent sections ofthe riding posts.

Themanner of using the binders is as follows :--In the locked position, Fig: 1 the upper sections of the lock posts 0 (see Fig. 5) are screwed on and the key N has been turned to pinch the postsbetween the slide bar L andthe'stub bar K- (see Fig. 8) thus fastening the cover stubs'B and E tightly on the'leaves U, with-the two binding posts O passed through two of the eye-holes of the leaves U and the'r'idinglp'osts set in two of the notches W of the leaves U. In this locked position the leaves may be all in normal position as shown in Fig. 1 or some of them may be oifset (see Fig. 2). The lock posts and riding posts so locked in the binder are made up of an appropriate number of sections (seeFigs. 5 and6) to suit the number of leaves and consequent thickness of the charged binder. i V

- To make ready for using-the binder the bent sections Z and the outer extension seetions and the knob ends); of the riding posts are screwed (right hand) onto the standing sections thereof, as shown in Fig. 21. The binder while still closed as in Fig. 2, isthen setup in a book stander book rest such as Y (Fig. 4:). Then the key N is turned to release the posts from'the front stub E, and the book is spread open as shown in Fig. 4. The lock posts 0 are then screwed out of their sockets HH. The leaves'are thus left free to be slid along the riding posts, to be lifted out, or to be restored to position as required. The leaves on either side of the opening may be disposed leaning against the one cover or the other as required and placed in normal or offset order or rearranged in any serial order, or reversed back to front as may be found desirable to facilitate the purpose of the user. The closing of the binder is a reversed operation.

The lock posts are made up of a bottom left hand nipple and as many sections as the thickness of the binder demands. These sections are screwed tightly together, the

tommy-holes T being provided for tommy rods to effect this fastening. The tightness of the intermediate joints, thus secured, holds them secure against accidental slackening back when the posts are being screwed home on the base (left hand) thread and in the unscrewing movement to remove the lock posts from their sockets HI-l, the tendency is to tighten up the intermediate joints. There is, herefore, no risk of leaving a portion of either of the lock posts in its socket or disconnecting the sections in the screwing or unscrewing movement. So long as any two posts remain standing in the binder the loose leaves therein are held in register and the other posts may therefore be rapidly inserted through the appropriate eye-holes or stub notches in the leaves or withdrawn as required without disturbing the leaves.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of riding posts mounted on said member, said posts being bent intermediate their ends so that said ends are disposed angularly to each other, a second binder member independent of and unconnected with the first member, movably mounted on said riding posts by means of apertures through which said posts pass, and means carried by the second binder member for adjustably locking the same to the posts at varying distances from the first member.

2. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of riding posts supported by said member, said posts being bent intermediate their ends so that said ends are disposed angular-1y to each other, a second binder member mounted on said posts, and means between said binder members for holding the same spaced apart a variable distance.

3. A. loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of riding posts carried by said member, said posts being bent intermediate their ends so that said ends are disposed angularly to each other, at least one locking post carried by said binder member, a second binder member mounted on said riding and locking posts, and means carried by the second binder member for loekingthe same to said locking post. 7 i

4. A loose leaf binder" comprising in combination, a, binder member, a plurality of riding posts mounted in said member, said posts being bent intermediate their ends so that said ends are disposed angularly to each other, a plurality of locking posts also mounted in said member insertible in and removable from the same at will, a second binder member mounted on said riding and locking posts, and means carried by the second binder member for locking the same to the locking posts.

5'. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of riding posts supported by said member, each post comprising a plurality of sections, an intermediate one of which is bent so that its ends extend angularly to each other, a second binder member mounted on said posts, and means between said binder members for holding the same spaced apart a variable distance.

6. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of threaded sockets carried thereby, a plurality of riding posts having threaded connectionwith said sockets, each post comprising a plurality of sections having screw threaded connection one with another, an intermediate one of said sections being bent so that. its ends extend angularly to each other, a second binder member mounted on said posts, and means between said binder members for holding the same spaced apart a variable distance.

7. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, provided with screw threaded sockets, a plurality of locking posts having screw threaded connection with said sockets insertible in and removable from the same at will, a plurality of riding posts mounted in said member, a second binder member mounted on said locking and riding posts, and means carried by the second binder member for locking the same to said locking posts.

8. A loose leaf binder comprising in combination, a binder member, a plurality of sockets carried by said member and provided with left hand screw threads, a plurality of locking posts, each comprising a plurality of sections connected together by right hand screw threaded connections, the lowermost section having a left hand screw thread to engage the corresponding threaded socket on the binder member, a plurality of riding posts mounted in said binder member, a

second binder member mounted on said looking and riding posts, and'mea-nscarried by the second binder member for locking the same to saidloeking posts.

9. A loose leaf binder comprising in eombinati'on, a binder member, aplurality of locking posts carried by said binderinember and insertible in or removable from the same at will, a plurality of riding posts also carried by said binderrmember, a second binder member mounted 011 said locking and riding posts, and means carried by the second binder, member forlookifig the same to both the glockingvan'd the riding posts.

In testimony whereof We have signed our 15 nam'estothis specification in the presence of twosubscribing Witnesses. CECIL CUTLER,- v

V. DANIEL FRANCIS MORAND. Witnesses: j

H. C. CAMPBELL. 

